js2458

Enterprise SDR

Valued Contributor

I made a huge fuckup today and feel horrible

I'm not someone to double post but this is something that just happened to me within the last 10 mins and thought it would be an interesting story to tell and also caution against.

I am a huge cold caller; as such, I've A/B tested a bunch of stuff over the phone to determine the best opening lines, personalization, tidbits, commonalities etc. to reach out with.

One of my most boldest takes was how to get past screeners. What I mean by this is that sometimes people's cells will have google-assisted screeners that ask the purpose of why you are calling. I've found that whenever I go in with the regular sales jargon, I never get pickups. However, something that has worked is telling the assisted caller that you're doordash/uber eats. The screener lets you through instantly and the prospect never checks the message that I left.

However, today I got caught. I reached out to the CEO of a company who answered the phone expecting a doordash delivery. I went in with my normal opening and got the response:

"Are you kidding me???"

I tried to play dumb, and he kind of laughed it off and continued the conversation. Ended up with him telling me to send him an email and I thought all was done from there.

A few hours later, he made a LinkedIN post detailing our conversation and stated that he would never do business with our company ever again. He then messaged my CEO and told him that my outreach was the worst he's ever seen.

Obviously, I'm in the wrong here. And, it's dumb that it's taken this long for me to recognize this - or that it took someone getting angry at me to do so - but here we are. My boss apologized the guy, but I want to do my part as well to make amends with him. Thinking about sending him a LinkedIN message detailing that I'm sorry and that what I did was horrible.

I feel disgusting.

📞 Cold Calling

55

52 comments

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Sunbunny31

Politicker

37

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Send him some treats via DoorDash. He's obviously hangry.

In reality, ouch, sorry that happened.
It's beginning to seem like CEOs and leadership also are waiting for some poor entry level person to make a mistake so they can immediately go to LI and complain or make up a story about the situation. I guess my message to those people is BE BETTER.

Fenderbaum

Politicker

24

Retired Choirboy🪕

I second this. The CEO didn't have to pull the douche card out and show everyone. His response says more about him than it does about your Doordash disguise. In my experience, most of those in leadership positions have pulled some shady shit in their careers, but wear a halo like they earned it. Such is life. 😎

oldcloser

Arsonist

13

💀

I'm with this too. It's not a tactic I would use, but let's face it. Sometimes we get lost in the game. Prospect should have absolutely blown it off. What a twatweasel.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

7

🦊

Can't be mad at treats 🤷‍♀️

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

5

Director, Revenue Enablement

Would hate to be the door dasher who ends up calling to make the delivery

oldcloser

Arsonist

2

💀

That’s right! Never forget the little guy!

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

30

☕️

Take this exactly how it reads: don’t ever fucking do that again.

I’d never work with you either.

This is what makes sales people look like shit. You have an opportunity to learn from this and move on with a desire to build better skills.

If this comment makes any other members feel hurt, you’re probably doing shit like this too and it has to stop.

js2458

Politicker

14

Enterprise SDR

Yep, I did a disservice not only to me but to my fellow salespeople out there. Will learn from this from sure and I appreciate the comment.

miguelnelson

Contributor

0

Business Development Representative

Lol jesus dude relax, it's fine. That's a shitty way to go about cold outreach but this dude is overreacting. Just don't do it again and move on.

sketchysales

Politicker

4

Sales Manager

100% with PBC here and anyone downvoting needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.
And fair play to you @js2458 for owning your mistake semi publicly here.

1

Enterprise Account Manager for the Midwest

I agree with @poweredbycaffeine. While the approach may sometimes work, it is dishonest and no way to start out a potential relationship. You may be able to make amends by standing apart from others but in a positive way.
Ask your boss if you can expense a $50 Uber Eats gift card for that CEO (I would personally pay for it myself, but that is me) and buy a nice apology card. Write a note apologizing for what you did (own it - don't try to justify it) and say something like, "Please accept this small gift as part of my apology. It doesn't make things right, but it is a start."
The CEO should respect this as very few people make real apologies, and he may even follow up with you. He may even post that for others to see.
A good reputation is a tough thing to build but an easy thing to lose. Why risk that by being dishonest? Instead, look for ways that are relevant and timely so the gatekeepers will feel good about letting you through.

lajefa

Good Citizen

0

Enterprise Account Executive

+1

jefe

Arsonist

16

🍁

There was no need for him to jump on his soapbox and post about it. But you done fucked up. You know this, you've owned it.
Learn and grow.

Bman

1

Revenue Management and Ops Consultant

I am with Jefe here. The CEO took it too far, but everybody wants to be an influencer, so you should probably keep that in consideration going forward.I give you points for creativity, but clearly this person did not see it that way. I wonder what they would have responded for the tactics used by Chris in Pursuit of Happyness?Don't lose that fire in your belly and keep moving forward. Better days are ahead.

11

Retired Sales Professional

I think you are being to hard on yourself. You made a mistake, learn from it and move on. Don't feel that you need to apologize to someone who carries the title of CEO, they're human and as you can tell from their childish response with many flaws. If they're pitiful enough to respond in that nature, you don't really need them as a pain in the wazoo customer they will be. Dust yourself off and on to the next prospect. Truly I say, all the best.👍👍

HVACexpert

Politicker

5

sales engineer

Soak in the criticism, and learn from your mistake. I get it, there is a lot of pressure to pay bills, meets metrics, etc. But we all must take some honor, integrity , and ethics into our job. Otherwise we are just the used car salesman they think we are.

If you learn from this you will be better for it.

pirate

Big Shot

4

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Don't do it again but hey someone else might have found it creative. This CEO could have told you straight how it is. What a loser he is for writing LinkedIn posts and ringing your CEO ...

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

2

Director, Revenue Enablement

I actually don’t think that CEO overstepped. Was it harsh? Yup! But it’s also a reminder that we as sales people need to play above the line.

pirate

Big Shot

3

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Honestly I hate when people post about this on LinkedIn

GrowthBastard

4

Sales Leader

In my career of 2 decades, I've had my fair share of stupidity. While I made mistakes, I never misrepresented myself for anything or anyone else, because if and when they decide to talk with you and they find out you're misrepresenting, this happens. I believe you'll come back out fighting.
However, this is why I believe cold-calling has been dead in this day and age. if I were a purchaser/vendor manager or leader, I would be looking at the internet for solutions and would go to your company's website to learn what I need. Then, I would call on the 5 companies whom I think can help based on the information they have.
Tell your company to do better, cold calling has a 5% success rate, you've wasted weeks before getting one client. That's why screeners and gatekeepers keep you away from your target customer. If you guys are doing well with cold-calling, that's fine. But consider other methods of reaching out to prospects.

lajefa

Good Citizen

2

Enterprise Account Executive

This 100%. People are tired of these dumb questionable tactics. They are also tired of spam emails and emails with no real point, or that don't apply to them.
It's made it doubly harder to connect with people even when we are sincere. Salespeople have gotten a bad name, in a year where budgets are already tight and the economy is where it is.
Can we just stop?

js2458

Politicker

1

Enterprise SDR

Yeah, I mean you're working in the enterprise space so it might be a tad different. I had huge, huge success with cold calling. So much so that I broke a number of revenue targets and achieved about 600k in closed won revenue solely off of cold calling within a 3.5 month span as a SDR.

So no, I don't agree that cold calling is dead and I don't agree that stopping cold calling altogether will help. There is still a lot of revenue to be won from cold calling - especially because companies simply do not know who to reach out to about a certain solution. Everyone's website looks the same, and offering the right solution at the right time (especially from a human-human standpoint) still is effective.

What you're describing is me - as a salesperson - sitting back and letting the inbound come in. That's all hunky dory if you are working at Oracle or SAP. But, for most companies, people don't know about you. And the best way to get your name out there is picking up the phone and making targeted dials to your ICP.

What I do definitely agree is that you need to be very focused and zeroed in with messaging and how you present yourself on a cold call because it will leave the greatest impression on your prospects.
And that line above is where I need to do better.

lajefa

Good Citizen

0

Enterprise Account Executive

If you're talking to me, I didn't suggest you should stop. I suggested stop the questionable tactics and the mindset of, more is always better.
You're not the only one doing this. It is rife in our industry. It makes us all look bad and makes our buyers trust us less. Word gets around...not JUST about this incident, but about salespeople as a whole. It takes one or two bad stories to spread like wildfire. Great you have all those accomplishments, it works for you.
Enterprise is not different. No rep that I know sits back and 'lets the calls roll in'. So that's a fallacy. We just have more layers to go through. If anything the level of decorum and respect is higher. But tbh, we should all raise the bar when it comes to cold outreach. Sales isn't what it was. We have to adapt to the environments we find ourselves in.

BigShrimpin

Catalyst

3

Account executive

lets be real if it worked nobody would say anything im personally against lying to get past the gatekeeper (especially in a world with zoominfo and scrapers just call direct) but its not the end of the world

Pachacuti

Politicker

3

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

We all make mistakes. I have made some big ones that I should have been fired for, but was t. Yours was a big one. And it was probably blown up bigger than it should have been, but it is what it is now. You might get fired, but maybe not.

My advice- if confronted, own it. Say you screwed up and you feel bad about it. Say if there’s anything you can do to make up for it, you will…

If not confronted, let it be.

Diablo

Politicker

2

Sr. AE

All is good. What happened has happened and cannot be undone. You know where you should be cautious now.

lowhangersalesbanger

Executive

2

Director of Sales

I wouldn't dwell on it. Guy sounds like a douche who thinks more of himself than he should. If your boss isn't mad about it just learn from it and move on.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

1

Sales Rep

I am super sorry to hear what happened, if I were you I would mark them dnc for yourself and not bother them again. Out of sight out of mind.

wolfofmiami

Opinionated

1

🐺

Send him some Uber eats or door dash, with a note. Also gotta be careful with those screeners most of them it’s just a recording of what you say on the screener.

Justatitle

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

1/10 wouldn't recommend being shady to get a deal, chickens always come home to roost.

Riffiki

Personal Narrative

1

Founder

Part of being a good SDR is getting creative by finding ways to cut through the noise. Was it a bit misleading? Yeah. Did the CEO need to put you on blast? No.

If it were me I would just own up to it and apologize showing the ability to understand his situation and how it looks.

If he chooses to accept apology with the goal of maybe giving you/your company another chance down the road, awesome. If not, there are many fish in the sea. Just learn from what happened and keep grinding 😎

1

Enterprise Account Director

I don’t hate the move - the fact is marketing efforts arnt working in most companies anymore and it’s left to the bdr/sdr function to get something going - I would reach out and ask him and apologise for offending him deeply and then ask if he publicly humiliates his own staff via linked in? - and then I would follow with requesting advice on how to get through to executives that he gives to his own staff. Following that if my own CEO roasted me for this move I’d find a new job… SDR/bdr function is the most critical function to support an enable. There’s a reason no one else in the company does it. Back yourself and go hard. It’s a big market out there.

Spurs

Politicker

0

Account executive

Let’s be real - you lied to a bot. This isn’t such a huge sin and the guy just wanted to be famous for a minute and get sympathy on LinkedIn.

Wouldn’t do it again but also don’t beat yourself up over something so trivial

LMHandle7

Personal Narrative

0

Sales Director

Whoops, I think the best way to heal this is to send him either a handwritten letter sincerely stating that you are so sorry or an Email to that effect. Something similar happened to me years ago but our CEO backed me up 110% for my assertiveness and apologized for me.

lajefa

Good Citizen

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Well...you used a questionable tactic on someone and it backfired spectacularly. This is what I really dislike about cold calling - sometimes the company tells you to do whatever you need to do to get ahold of people. It's gross and wrong.
That said, did he go overboard? Probably. Was he justified in being pissed. Yes. This whole situation most likely got out of hand, and right now - it is what it is.
We need to realize and understand that our business needs do not trump what our clients are feeling. Not only are they tired of being bombarded by sellers, they're tired of these tactics people use too. It's ruining our profession.
If I were you I would definitely send him some Grove Cookies (look them up on LI) with a note making amends. Then move on. And don't do this again.

cantteachsales

Executive

0

Ent AE @ Scaleup

Said with love: <br><br>What you did wrong was being so creative that you were willing to say something that was not true. You lied. Lying will always cause damage and is unacceptable. One of its greatest dangers is the liar quickly conditions himself into believing he is telling some sort of truth. He obfuscates. So he is to pity as well, because he has robbed himself of a clear image of reality and it is a difficult habit to break. <br><br>Do not feel judged - what you did is done. But try to consider how you feel about lying and whether you believe it’s ok. If you do, then know that it at least you know now that it has consequences. If you don’t, then today is a new day, and begins the path to honesty. It will probably take awhile but the sun will be brighter and the air crisper, for you will be more whole with reality.<br><br>You probably have a ton of hustle, charisma, creativity and initiative based on your story. If that can be used honestly, it can be very good.

cantteachsales

Executive

0

Ent AE @ Scaleup

Also agree with the others. If this guy truly cared for you, he wouldn’t have made a fool of you to the world. He would have called you and gently told you that what you did was wrong and ask for you to apologize. Anything less than that is a violation of justice. Unfortunately, I don’t think many would have the courage or nobility to do that. I’d be shocked if I could. But someone did that to me once, and I’ll never forget how much it made me see the error in my ways, without being judged, and desire to no longer do bad

oldballs

0

CRO

I’ve always told my AEs and SDRs that if I don’t get an angry email from a prospect every now and again they aren’t trying hard enough. Now, that’s not to condone this particular ruse, but don’t beat your self up. You pushed the boundaries and found the limit. Back off a few degrees of subterfuge and move on. And if this CEO can’t chuckle and say to himself “I wish my AEs had this type of [slightly misguided] hustle” then fuck him. Oh, and if that’s the worst fuck you make in your career then you will be in really good shape. Chin up.

lieselfuel

Member

0

Regional Vice President

Kudos for being creative. More kudos for being self aware enough to admit you can be creative without lying! As for an apology, it takes two minutes. Do it and move on.

Lurking

0

Account Executive

Whole situation sucks, but I wouldn’t beat yourself up. Cold calling is brutal, personally I wouldn’t, but stuff like this can work.
I agree with most, the other CEO showed his ass. It was a ridiculous response and you probably don’t want his business anyway.
Best advice, don’t let it fuck with you head. Stay hungry, make your dials, keep fighting through screeners.

RobotROI

0

Robotics Sales Manager

I follow that CEO, so I already felt bad for you before things came full circle with you posting here.

As everyone said, learn from it, but don't beat yourself up. We've all said or done dumb things that come back to bite us and then we beat ourselves up.

Since this is kinda public, your CEO knows, the deal is lost before it started...you are really beating yourself up. And somehow, you've got to let it go in order for you to move forward.

My recommendation is to send the guy a hand-written apology card. Say this was a great wake up call, you learned deception is not ok in any context or for any ends. You will carry this lesson forward in work and life. You are not expecting a response, but you want him to know you got the lesson.

As you continue to make cold calls, no one you talk to will know anything about this. You are free to go back to calling early and often(without Doordash) and get the right people what they need. And just in case you need to hear this: You are forgiven.

js2458

Politicker

0

Enterprise SDR

Haha. Initials of first and last name?

Wouldn’t be surprised if you knew him based on the name of your user…

RobotROI

0

Robotics Sales Manager

EN.

js2458

Politicker

1

Enterprise SDR

Yep. That's the one haha.

mikecamby

Valued Contributor

0

Strategic Enterprise Account Executive

Definitely too hard on yourself. Authenticity is the key to real sales success, but as account executives, we’d all be lying if we said that we haven’t said whatever it takes to get past a gatekeeper on a cold call. This CEO is a huge Primadonna. If he was a real leader he should have given you some coaching, you apologize while explaining you did what you had to do to get past a robot (while being apologetic), and wish you the best. I think you can flip this frame and use all this free publicity to generate interest for a new job. Don’t shy away from his public beating, but repost it explaining your side and “what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for a connected call”. You’ll blow yourself out with sensitive people but there will be hustlers in the comments as well that will identify with your ballsy approach. Anyone who calls a Csuite exec and doesn’t revel their company name immediately is essentially trying to do the exact same thing you did but is instead lying by omission. Don’t let this c**t bury you.

lilhunter

Good Citizen

0

independent sales consultant

To be honest. This is FAR from the worst tactic I've seen/heard about. It's great that you're taking ownership, learning from your mistake and playing the straight and narrow.
But I also think the CEO's behavior was low. He should have told you off on the phone and not taken to LinkedIn to publicly try to hurt you/your career.

CastleIsland

Tycoon

0

Associate Account Director

While this is not a tactic I would use, don’t beat yourself up. This CEO that you spoke with runs a business and probably has a sales team that is cold calling as well. To put you on blast like that is unnecessary in my opinion.

waterjugsales

Politicker

0

Account Executive @ Funemployed

Two things can be right - 1) your approach to starting a cold conversation could be better and 2) the prospect was a huge dickhead

The best thing you can do is apologize, make good with your boss, learn from it and crush even harder.

Trust me we all have done stupid shit.

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